Extracted From:
Guide to Civil War records: 
A guide to the records in the South Carolina Department of Archives & History 
Patrick J. McCawley. 81 pages. Index. Illustrations/Photos.
Produced by the SC Dept. of Archives and History

NATIONAL ARCHIVES (NARA) MICROFILM
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has the largest single
collection of Civil War records. Its collection includes both federal records
documenting federal participation in the war as well as a large number of
Confederate records, which the Union armies captured at the end of the
conflict. You can get information on NARA's entire Civil War collection from
two guides - Henry Putney Beers, Guide to the Archives of the Government of
the Confederate States of America (Washington: National Archives and Record
Service, 1968), and Henry Putney Beers and Kenneth W. Munden, Guide to Federal
Archives Relating to the Civil War (Washington: National Archives and Record
Service, 1962). 

The South Carolina State Archives holds microfilm copies of the records listed
below.

COMPILED SERVICE RECORDS
These records are the Archives' most-used Civil War records. Between 1903 and
1920, clerks from the Record and Pension Office of the U.S. War Department,
under the authority of a Congressional statute, abstracted information on
individuals from Confederate muster rolls, payrolls, registers of
appointments, rosters, casualty lists, inspection reports, and hospital
registers; they also abstracted information from federal records relating to
Confederate prisoners of war, including hospital registers and rolls of
paroled soldiers. Other records included in the compiled service records are
originals that were taken from Confederate War Department files - certificates
of discharge or disability, pay vouchers, and the like. The information on
some soldiers may be difficult to find because of the way their names were
spelled; information on other soldiers may be absent, either because their
records of service were never created or because they were destroyed in the
confusion that attended the fall of the Confederate government.

M-267 Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in
Organizations from the State of South Carolina, 1861-1865, 392 mfm
These microfilmed records contain the service records of soldiers who served
in South Carolina units. Records of numbered units - regiments and battalions
- are arranged by branch of service - cavalry, artillery, infantry - and then
by the numerical designation of the unit. Records of unnumbered units and
independent companies appear under their branch of service after the numbered
units. Within each unit, the individual service records are arranged
alphabetically regardless of rank. Preceding these individual service records,
however, are officer lists and caption and record of events cards for each of
the unit's companies. The caption and record of events cards are taken from
the muster rolls and provide information - sometimes only a date and a duty
station but often something more extensive - on the movements and activities
of the companies.

M-331 Compiled Service Records of Confederate General and Staff Officers and
Nonregimental Enlisted Men, 1861-1865, 275 mfm
These records cover the officers and enlisted men who served the entire
Confederacy as staff - general officers and personnel of corps, division, and
brigade staffs, and Confederate military personnel of the departments of the
Adjutant and Inspector General, the Quartermaster General, the Commissary
General, the Surgeon General, and the Ordnance bureau. The personnel of the
Corps of Engineers, the Nitre and Mining Bureau, and the Signal Corps are not
included. The service records are arranged alphabetically regardless of rank.
Generally, these records do not include prior or later service in regiments or
smaller units. Such service would be included in the service records of the
units from a particular state.

M-253 Consolidated Index to Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers,
1861-1865, 535 mfm
This is a master index to the compiled service records. Each index card
contains the soldier's name, his rank, and the unit in which he served.
Variant spellings are cross referenced; cards are arranged alphabetically by
name; if more than one card appears for a name the cards are arranged by state
and then by the numerical designation of the state unit. If you want the
records of soldiers from a state other than South Carolina, you should contact
that state archives or NARA.

M-260 Records Relating to Confederate Naval and Marine Personnel, 1861-1865, 7
mfm
This microfilm reproduces records related to Confederate naval and marine
corps service and is arranged in three series. The first is based on
information that was obtained from original hospital and prison registers and
rolls and abstracted onto cards; the second and third are reference cards and
original papers related to individual naval and marine personnel. Within each
series the material is arranged alphabetically by name. Individuals whose
records are included in this series are not listed in the consolidated index.

OTHER NARA RECORDS
The South Carolina Archives also holds microfilm of other NARA records.
Detailed guides to these are available at the SC Archives Reference Desk or
From the National Archives.

M-262 The War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate
Armies, 1861-1865, 128 mfm
The War of the Rebellion series, commonly called the "OR," is a compilation of
reports, correspondence, orders, returns, and other official papers published
by the War Department between 1880 and 1901. The material is broken into
series covering military operations, prisoners of war, and records relating to
government officials on both sides; the records are arranged chronologically,
and those covering military operations are arranged geographically as well.
Each volume is indexed, and a one-volume general index covers the entire
series. A more specific volume guide is available at the Reference Desk.

M-275 The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of
Rebellion, 1861-1865, 31 mfm
The Department of the Navy published a companion set covering naval war
records between 1894 and 1922. The first series covers naval operations
arranged chronologically within geographical segments. The second series
covers non-operational naval aspects and diplomatic affairs of the Confederate
government. Like the army OR, these volumes are indexed both separately and in
a one-volume general index. Besides the microfilm set, a reprinted paper
version is available in the Reference Room.

M-617 Returns from U.S. Military Posts, 1800-1916, 47 mfm
The Archives holds only 47 of the 550 rolls of microfilm in this series. It
reproduces the troop returns reported by army post commanders to the United
States Adjutant General's Office. The returns, morning reports, and other
documents of this series give the units stationed at the post, their troop
strength, the roster and duties of officers, the record of events, and other
information about the post. Of the forty-seven rolls the Archives holds, only
the nine listed below cover federal posts in South Carolina during the Civil
War.

Roll 93 Beaufort
Roll 477 Hilton Head
Roll 1242 Fort Sumter
Roll 1496 Botany Bay
Roll 1508 Otter Island
Roll 1520 Little Folly Island
Roll 1525 Morris Island
Roll 1538 St. Helena Island
Roll 1542 Fort Seward

M-836 Confederate States Army Casualties: Lists and Narrative Reports,
1861-1865, 7 mfm
These records consist of lists and narrative reports of casualties submitted
by Confederate army units to the Confederate War Department. Some of this
material is duplicated in the War of Rebellion series. The casualty lists are
arranged by the state where the battle took place and then by battle and unit.
A guide listing the battles and units covered is available at the Reference
Desk.

M-858 The Negro in the Military Service of the United States, 1639-1886, 5 mfm
This series reproduces seven volumes of records compiled for publication by
the Colored Troop Division of the Adjutant General's Office before 1888. The
volumes hold published and unpublished primary source material including
records from the War Department's Collection of Confederate Records. This
compilation, which is not comprehensive, is composed largely of material on
the Civil War period. A guide is available at the Reference Desk.

M-918 Register of Confederate Soldiers, Sailors, and Citizens who died in
Federal Prisons and Military Hospitals in the North, 1861-1865, 1 mfm
In 1906, Congress established the Office of the Commissioner for Marking the
Graves of Confederate Dead to locate, acquire, and mark Confederate graves
near former federal POW camps and military hospitals. This is a single volume
register compiled by the office when it completed the project in 1912. The
register is arranged by prison camp or hospital with the deceased soldiers
listed alphabetically.

M-1003 Case Files of Applications from Former Confederates for Presidential
Pardons, 1865-1867, 5 mfm
The Archives holds five of the seventy-three rolls of microfilm in this
series. The series consists of the pardon applications and related papers
submitted to the president of the United States between 1865 and 1867 by
individuals ineligible for amnesty through the four general proclamations
issued by Presidents Lincoln and Johnson. Individuals required to petition for
pardons included high ranking military officers and civilian leaders. The five
rolls cover applications from individuals in South Carolina and the name
index. A guide is available at the Reference Desk.

Roll 1 Name Index
Roll 44 South Carolina, Ad-Du
Roll 45 South Carolina, Ea-Ko
Roll 46 South Carolina, La-Ry
Roll 47 South Carolina, Sa-Zi, Amnesty Oaths, and two name files

M-87 Records of the Commissioners of Claims (Southern Claims Commission),
1871-1880,14 mfm
A Congressional act of 3 March 1871 authorized a three-member commission to
receive, examine, and consider claims for reimbursement from loyal citizens in
rebel states for supplies furnished to federal military forces. Southerners
filed 22,298 claims in the two-year period allowed by the statute. The
commission finished its work and submitted its last report in March 1880, but
the federal government allowed only 7,092 of the 22,298 claims. The records
reproduced in this series include the commission journals, summary reports,
correspondence to and from the special investigative agents, general
correspondence, miscellaneous papers, a geographical list of claimants, and an
alphabetical register of claims. A more detailed guide is available at the
Reference Desk. Additional information on South Carolina claims is in "South
Carolina and the Southern Claims Commission" by John H. Moore listed below
under Private Papers.

M-123 Eleventh Census of the United States, 1890: Schedules Enumerating Union
Veterans and Widows of Union Veterans of the Civil War, 1 mfm
The I March 1889 Congressional act establishing a Census Office authorized a
special schedule to collect names and other information on Union veterans and
widows. Preliminary work consisted of obtaining information from the U.S.
Pension Office and from veterans groups. The census began 2 June and ended
officially on I July 1890, although the Census Office collected and added
information through 30 June 1891. The schedules give the name of the veteran
or the name of the widow and her deceased husband, the veteran's rank,
company, regiment or vessel, date of enlistment and discharge, length of
service, post office address, and any disabilities incurred in service. The
Census Office transferred the schedules to the pension office in 1894, thus
saving the schedules from the 1921 fire that destroyed most of the 1890
Census. Enumerators inadvertently recorded some Confederate veterans. The
entire microfilm series consists of 118 rolls, but the Archives has only the
microfilm covering the South Carolina portions of the schedule. A printed
index is available in the Reference Room.

Roll of Dead South Carolina Troops, Confederate States Service, 1861-1865, 1
mfm
This microfilm reproduces a volume held by NARA and filmed for the Archives in
1985. The volume has been identified as the roll arranged and engrossed by the
state's Survivors Association during the summer of 1870 under the supervision
of Professor William J. Rivers. Rivers compiled the names between 1864 and
1868 after the General Assembly appointed him to take over a project begun by
William B. Johnston in 1862. The volume contains two alphabetical lists
compiled by Rivers. The first list contains approximately ten thousand names
compiled from information taken from company commanders, friends, and families
of the deceased soldiers. The second list contains about two thousand names
that Rivers acquired from printed adjutant lists of casualties. Rivers
believed the accuracy of the second list needed verification. The state's
Survivors Association planned to publish the list but never did because it
lacked the funds. It is not known how the National Archives acquired the
volume. See the Confederate Historian records for more information and related
records.

mfm = microfilm

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